Abortion clinics and N.O.W. testify vs new KS regulations

By Kathy Ostrowski, Legislative Director, Kansans for Life

Kansas State Rep. Peggy Mast (R-Emporia)

Abortion supporters demanded abortion be made legal so it could be safe. Thus, it is they who should be at the forefront of hounding state officials to monitor and close woman-injuring, outrageously deficient abortion businesses. But they are not.

Kansas abortion facility oversight was initially introduced in 2002 and was shepherded by Kansans for Life through its passage this spring as House substitute bill 36.

The need for such a law was based originally on a State Healing Arts Board that ignored documented abortionist malfeasance, including 4 (later, 5) patient deaths.

In Kansas, any physician who has failed in another medical field (including a lung specialist, and a psychiatrist) can “take up abortion” without formal ob/gyn training. Patient mistreatment and botched abortions do not quickly catch up with such practitioners because the shame factor hinders injured women from contacting state regulators or filing lawsuits as freely as they would for other kinds of medical malpractice.

From the outset, Kansas abortionists have adamantly denied the validity of state inspection. That resistance continued Wednesday at a public hearing that is required before abortion licensure regulations can become permanent.

The new health agency regulations were blasted as ridiculous, “written by committees without doctors” and “not helpful to women” (!) by N.O.W, Planned Parenthood executives and abortionist Herb Hodes, who filed a federal lawsuit against the regulations in June. (A federal judge has blocked enforcement, and the state is appealing.)

Rep. Peggy Mast (R-Emporia) attended the hearing and was especially irritated by such assertions. She testified it was unbelievable that an organization that claims to speak for women could be so callous. Mast testified (as she has in past years) about heart-breaking constituent accounts detailing sexual abuse inside abortion clinics and an abortion-caused death never reported to state authorities.

The same folks who demand abortions be covered by insurance and mainstreamed into government healthcare see no contradiction in refusing inspection and oversight! The schizophrenia continues: South Carolina was sued (unsuccessfully) for “vague” abortion regulations. Kansas is now being sued for overly-specific regulations.

Hodes and partner/daughter Nauser oppose the regulation requiring two hours (or more) supervised recovery. Both were featured on the Rachel Maddow program claiming that 15 minutes post-op is sufficient.

Our medical advisors disagree. Internal bleeding does not show up in 15 minutes as shown in a recent 911 call from a New Mexico abortion business whose client had been ‘stable” for 90 minutes but suddenly began to bleed out. Hodes:

compared abortion to removing a lump on the leg;

said that his office experience exceeded that of hospitals;

complained the health agency didn’t bring him in to “consult” about “abortion care” regulations.

Yet certainly, the current Kansas regulations can be met. Although they complained bitterly, Planned Parenthood achieved the licensing requirements in a matter of days! At the hearing they said that despite achieving the new standards, they opposed them.

However, these new regulations are important because they initiate mandates for surgical sanitation and resuscitation safety,reports to authorities of abortion-initiated injuries and deaths of women, and abortion-specific protocols for Rh testing, ultrasonography, and protecting babies who accidentally survive abortions.

Kansans for Life testified in support of the regulations and pro-life physicians emailed their comments to the state.